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While playing both games I realized that the mistakes I made were helping me learn in order to make better decisions. After many attempts, I was able to Reach 90 days while getting a profit and completing the goals I was given. Below are both screenshots from games 1 and 2.

This is the certificate I got from taking the 4-hour-long course on QuickBooks Essential Training.

At first, I was kind of skeptical of what exactly I would be doing but after watching the video I gained a better understanding. Some of the resources were not working, but the assignment wasn’t hard overall so the task became self-explanatory. I found the Excel assignment easy and the presentation assignment was fun to do.

I learned a lot about forage and what I would be looking forward to doing if I was to work in their company. I feel like my individual skills improved by taking the time to create my first pitch deck and website. In the beginning, the assignment felt challenging because everything was all new at first but the resources provided made it easier to complete.

The location I presented my Ceep project was to daycare in Marcy Place which is the street next to where I live in Elliott Place. I had approached them through a phone number I knew from someone that works for that daycare but at a different location. I asked them if they could give me a few minutes to talk about how they felt about minorities in the neighborhood running traditional businesses and if they are successful in how they are running the business or what it is that they have to change to be successful. I read some of the notes I had written down on some flashcards that contained information on how the traditional businesses are still successful because of how close by they are to people’s homes and they have all necessities that you might need, which makes you not even have to leave your neighborhood to get what you need. I also gave them an example of the deli at the corner of Elliot because usually people who live on that block go to get breakfast in the morning or people buy things that they might need and the store is right where they live is more convenient for them. I told them that if traditional businesses wanted to stay relevant and become successful they would need to use social media for advertisement and gaining loyal customers. They agreed with me because they use Instagram to give parents and potential customers a preview with pictures and videos of what they do with the children while in their care. They said that not only does what they post on Instagram bring them more customers but it also opens more job opportunities for people as the daycare expands. I ended the conversation by telling them that for minorities to be successful we need to take advantage of every opportunity to make sure there is no possibility of failure. 

These images give you a perspective of what my neighborhood looks like.

CEEP Project Report Back

Rances Vasquez

Borough of Manhattan Community College

SBE 400: Small Business Management

Dr. Roderick Shane Snipes

March 28, 2023

Minority Businesses on 170th Street

Introduction

Do minorities in my neighborhood run traditional businesses effectively to target the market, and If not what changes can they make in order to make their businesses successful? If I had one word to describe my community it would be lively because the moment you step into 170th street It’s a whole new world, you will see street vendors consisting of different ethnicities on every street, halal and Mexican food trucks parked on the corner of a street, the loud 170th street train station that you can’t miss, and all the traditional businesses that are only a couple feet away from each other. People might say what does 170th street has to offer because it isn’t like it’s a location to go sightseeing or where people plan a visit. You can also argue that every new york street might be like this but I promise you that if you have never been to 170th street, you are missing out because there is so much going on at once that you have no choice but to want to see more. Not only will you see a hardworking community full of ambition and drive to be successful but you will be provided with a sense of excitement and adventure that you can’t get anywhere else. In my neighborhood, the businesses are usually if not all run by minorities and I always wanted to know after all the years I’ve lived here how have they managed to stay successful. I asked myself what they did to go against the competition and remain successful or what changes did they make to improve their businesses. 

Methods

I knew that to know more I would have to do some research, so I took the time to visit some businesses in my community to talk and ask them how they managed to stay successful. I wrote down what they said and what they used to gain customer loyalty and get ahead of the competition. As I was going over my notes, I noticed that almost every business had said the same thing, that it was important to incorporate social media into your business and people found it convenient to have stores to get what they need close by. I still wasn’t satisfied and realized that further research was needed to get the answer to my question. So, I used the method of creating a survey consisting of 7 questions that I created in google forms to gather data for my research question, Each question ranged from minorities owing successful businesses to the integration of social media into traditional businesses.  I received 20 responses that gave me some insight into how my question was solved, but the data they provided me was not sufficient enough to make an analysis. I then transferred the data into excel so that I can analyze the data to see similarities and differences in the responses. To fully get an analysis of how people responded to the questions I decided to use pie charts in separate excel sheets for each question. 

Question 1 – Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statement:

“Minorities have a harder time starting and making a business successful.”

This question was created to give me an understanding of how people felt about minorities having more trouble than the majority in creating their own businesses and becoming successful. About 45% of the respondents agreed that this statement was true and 50% strongly agreed that minorities have more trouble than others. This showed that minorities would need good marketing strategies and customer relations, and some type of financial management to succeed because of how much harder it is for them.

Question 2 – How likely is it for an entrepreneur to create a business using social media rather than going the traditional business route?

This was more of a general question to understand how people felt about taking a different approach than staying as a traditional business and incorporating the use of social media in their business to engage with customers, building customer loyalty, advertising, and feedback to improve your business. About 90% of the respondents agreed that it was more likely for a business to use social media rather than not using it and staying as a traditional business. If you are using social media it is most likely that people will come across your business getting you recognition.

Question 3 – Do you prefer to do your shopping online or going directly to the store?

A majority 80% of people like online shopping rather than in-store shopping because they can shop any time they want and save more time than going to shop in the store. But even though people prefer online shopping the vast majority of people tend to make purchases in-store. It’s important that you start an omnichannel retail strategy to increase your customer base, sales, and profit. Online shopping is important if you want your brick & mortar business to become stay relevant.

Question 4 – Does location affect the success of a business?

I wanted to understand if people valued the businesses around them solely because of where it is located. Some people rather shop closer to home than travel a distance to buy things they need. It is also important when a business picks the location of where they want their business because they need to take into account the competition, the people who live there, and their income level. As a result, the location of a business can have some type of impact on your business like the increase in sales, brand visibility, and brand reputation you can gain.

Question 5 – What minority group do you think owns the most traditional businesses in the US?

The pie chart above shows that 50% of the respondents think Hispanic own most of the traditional businesses and the other majority 35% are white people, for example, Jews and Arabs.  This information helps me understand what minority group is the most common to owning a business in my community and who exactly will be the target market for those business owners. Once we can identify the people who are having the problem we can proceed with coming up with a solution will be much easier. Minorities are who bring wealth into a community bringing more opportunities, Generational Wealth, and they make the economy stronger.

Discussion 

This research taught me that for minorities to remain successful they need to be prepared to make changes to their businesses because even if they are thriving right now, you never know what can happen in the future. Minorities are already made to work harder than most, so putting yourself in a  position where you don’t have to put so much effort and still reap the benefits of success can change your life. In my community, people found it more convenient to get anything they need in the stores around them. One of the reasons that minorities remain successful is because of how accessible their businesses are to people in my community. Another reason is that traditional businesses offer warmth to the community, it’s also usually a place that has been around for a while and most people can recognize them if they’re mentioned. This is in fact an example of customer loyalty that business owners have been developing over the years. If they were to make any changes to their business, it would be to use social media because it’s a new generation and if you want to stay relevant with competition everywhere, you need to promote yourself differently from others. When I talked to the minority business owners in my community hearing what I had to say made them realize what they had to lose and how much more they could gain.

Have you ever asked yourself how minorities in your neighborhood run traditional businesses effectively to target the market? Also, in what ways have they changed can they make in order to make their businesses successful?

Do minorities in my neighborhood run traditional businesses effectively to target the market, and If not what changes can they make in order to make their businesses successful?

In my neighborhood, the businesses are usually if not all run by minorities and I always wanted to know after all the years I’ve lived here how have they managed to stay successful. I asked myself what they did to go against the competition and remain successful or what changes did they make to improve their business in order to target the market.

 

 

In My Community Google Maps, I show all the locations that I either visit frequently or are special to me. In the map I mention the Dominican deli across the street from my house, the park I went to after school, the restaurant my dad took us to when he came to visit, etc. In the image below is one of the locations, the La Rosa Bakery where we go every year to buy birthday cakes.